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Wash ington, Or-AV/^r smsi.^^ 
To the Editor : 

Sir: I thank you sincerely for tLe privilege courteously 
accorded me of vindicating myself, through your columns, 
from certain scurrilous charges made in a repoj-ted " inter- 
view," by Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior under 
President Buchanan's administration, and which appeared 
in the I'liiladelphia Press of the seventeenth ultimo, having 
been copied from the Mempliis Appeal. 

It is with extreme reluctance that I venture to obtrude 
any private wrong I may liave sutlered on the notice of the 
public, well knowing that it cannot be reasonably expected 
to feel any special concern in my personal affairs; but while 
this is so, it is not to 1h' forgotten that all honorable men 
love the truth, ow' it ;i lidniage wiiicli they gladly pay, and, 
sympathize with its ^'liaiupicuiship under all circumstances, 
as essentially the championship of their own cause and in- 
terests. It is tliis wliicli emboldens me to ask a dispassion- 
ate consideration of the statements which I am abi^it to 

submit. 

It is clear that tliis '• interview,"' though ostensibly foi- an- 
other object, was really sought to give Afr. Thoinjison an oj). 
portunity of vomiting forth upon me fetid calumnies, long 
since buried out of the sight of honest men. His rage, pent 
up for some twenty-two years, seems almost insanely joyful 
in the cliance for slanderous vitui)erati()n at last aiforded 
him. For this assault he has liad no }>rovocation whatever. 
I was doing nothing, saving nothing that could give him the 
slightest annoyance or disturbance. The se<[uel will show 
how I incurred the hatred which has evidently been stinging 
his bosom much more than my own. 

Pie says I ••' went from Mississip[)i to Wasiiington," — there- ' 
by intimating that, coming from a State which he repre- 
sented in the Cabinet, I owed him a certain measure of al- 
legiance, which, in his view, aggravated my subsequent in- 



subordination, Xow, the lad is, that I left Mississippi 
finally in 1842, and thereafter made my home in Kentucky, 
my native State, until the spring of 1857, when my resi- 
dence was transferred to Washington. 1 was not the con- 
stituent of Mr. Thompson, nor his acquaintance; w^e were 
entire strangers to each other, until we met here. 

It is a time-honored maxim of the law, and " worthy of 
all acceptation," that a witness, who testifies falsely in one 
thing, is to be believed in nove. Let us keep this wise rule in 
view as we proceed. 

He says further, speaking of me: 

" He hung about the courts for months and months — a 
briefless lawyer. I was disposed to do something for him, 
and told him one day I wanted a Commissioner of Patents, 
and thought he could fill the position with satisfaction, and 
added that if he would say he wanted the place, I would 
try and get it for him. He said he was doing nothing, and 
would l)eg]ad to get the i)Osition. I talked with the President 
about it, and found he had selected a friend from Pennsyl- 
vania, but I pressed Holt strongly upon him. By sheer 
persistence the l*resident's Pennsylvania friend was dropped, 
and Holt was ajtpointed." 

It will be observed that Mr. Thompson dominates every 
scene in which he appears, bestriding it like a Colossus, 
after the too prevalent fashion of the " interviewed" of our 
day, who so magnify tlieir own proportions and so dwarf 
surrounding persons and things as to sorely try public credu- 
lity and public patience as well. Tliis paradeful story was 
doubtless designed to give us a glini])se of his temporary exal- 
tation and of my alleged humility and dependence, tlius im- 
parting a touchingly-patronizing and compassionate air to 
the support whicli he claims to have giveii to my ap})oint- 
ment. How this pleasing fabric will dissolve in the light 
of the facts must now appear. I gave up wholly the prac- 
tice of the law some fifteen j-ears before I came to Wash- 
ington, and in coming here liad no thought whatever of 
resuming it, nor did I do so, or attempt to do so, I opened 



no office ; solicited uo professional business; would have ac- 
cepted none had it been offered me. I entered neither the 
clerks' offices nor the court rooms of the district, but lived 
inde[)endently on the eiirnings of former years, as I had a 
right to do. How, then, could I have beeu a " briefless lawyer 
hanging about the courts from month to month?" 

Let us i\ot forget the sound maxim of law above quoted. 

This office had no attractions for me, though some of my 
friends desired that I should flU it, and, happily, its duties 
proved more agreeable than I had anticipated they would 
be. I have always felt satisfied that it was bestowed upon 
me through the recommendations of a southern senator, 
then friendly, and whose relations both to the President and 
Mr. Thompson were such as to secure a favorable considera- 
tion of his wishes. 

Having held the office of Commissioner of Patents for 
some eighteen months, I was, on the death of Postmaster- 
General Brown, appointed his successor. Let us hear what 
Mr. Thompson has to say in regard to this appointment. 
These are his words : 

^'At a Cabinet meeting some time afterwards. President 
Buchanan said he felt that in ap[)ointing the successor of 
Postmaster-General Brown, he must select a man altogether 
different in his disposition. 'Brown was a good officer,' said 
he, ' but he was too good a man ; the department has suffered 
on account of his kindheartedness, and we must find a man 
who has no heart.' Several of the members suggested 
names, and finally I said, ' Mr. President, I have a man who 
exactl}' fills your description. He has not a friend in the 
whole world that I know of, and he has no heart, no soul. 
I mean my Commissioner of Patents, Holt.' 

" There was a general laugh, and I explained that I had no 
desire, whatever, to push Holt, but suggested him as a man 
who would fill the President's ideal of what the new Post- 
master should be. The appoint nient hung fire for several weeks, 
and finally, the President said to me that he believed that 
my man Holt would make the best Postmaster-General after 
all. So he was appointed." 



It would a[»pear from this that Mr. Thompson then knew 
little of my friends ; he knows far less of them now, and 
there is no lamentation for tliis on their account or on my 
own. If his coarse, billino-sgate asper'sions upon myself were 
intended as wit, then it can onl}- be said that they approached 
it no nearer tlian the oxlialations of the sewer approach the 
fragrance of the flower garden. But the whole of this scene, 
as presented, is grotesquely absurd and incredible. l*resi- 
dent Buchanan was, at nil times and everywhere, a courtly 
gentleman ; and his character for dignity and staiiiless in- 
tegrity was never compromised throughout a long and event- 
ful life. That he could have tolerated such a scene, much 
less been a participant in it — such indecency of utterance 
and such idiocy of suggestion — in a cabinet council over 
which he was jiresiding, is inconceiva))le ; and to hold that 
he could, is simply to insult the meiuory of a statesman and 
patriot to whom the country owes a large debt of justice, and 
of gratitude as well, which, when the passions of the war 
shall have Ijeen wholly hushed, the future will gladly recog- 
nize. 

The slurring remarks upon Tostmaster-General Brown — 
as though he had !)een weak, and so, incompetent — were put 
into the President's moutli to prepare the way for the op- 
probrious observations upon myself, which Mr. Thompson 
claims to have promptly made. Now, from the National In- 
felMgrvcer, a well-known and reliable journal then published 
in Washington, we learn that the President had his last in- 
terview with the Postmaster-General at 11 o'clock on the 
night of the seventh of March, 1859, and that while standing 
at the bedside and about to take his leave, the Postmaster- 
General said to him : " I have endeavored faithfully to dis- 
charge all ni}^ duties." To which the President replied that 
his effort had been successful, and that the whole country 
would attest, ''io hisjidelity as a public officer, and the success 
that had attended his administration of the department.''' With- 
in ten hours thereafter the Postmaster-General was no more. 
Does any man believe that, after the utterence of these em- 



phatic and solemn words, the President was capable of turn- 
ing around and saying to his Cabinet that the Postoffice De- 
partment had " suffered" from Postmaster-General Browi>'s 
administration of it ? But I now purpose to show that this 
Cabinet meeting, with its imputed vileness of speech — in- 
spired by the venom of a Cobra — Wcis a fabrication in the 
whole and in all its parts, 

Mr. TJionipson says " the appointment hung lire for several 
weeks," which is necessarily an averment that "several 
weeks" .elapsed after this pretended Cabinet meeting before 
my appointment was made — the oljject of tliis being to dis- 
parage me as far as }»()ssible by conveying the impression 
that the President hesitated thus long before he could bring 
himself to confer the office upon me. This statement is im- 
portant to be noted, since it will prove a light to guide us to 
the truth we are seeking. It is only in the field of vague 
generalities that the triumj»hs of fabricators are achieved. 
They come speedily to grief when they allow themselves to 
be specific, and Mr. Thompson's fate will not be different, in 
this respect, from that of the class to which he belongs. By 
yielding to the temptation to defame me, and so saying that 
this long period intervened between the Cabinet meeting and 
my appointment, he unwittingly has supplied a means, at once 
easy and sure, of exposing the deception which he is at- 
tempting to impose upon the public, i 

It a[»[)ears from the National Intelligencer of the ninth of 
March, 1859, that Postmaster-General Brown died on the day 
preceding at about 9 o'clock in the morning, from a severe 
attack of pneumonia, and in the same journal of Thursday 
the tenth of March, I find this editorial paragraph : 

" Hon. Joseph Holt, for some time past Commissioner of 
Patents, wan geMerda// nominated by the President, and forth 
with unanimously confirmed by the Senate, to the vacant 
office of Postmaster-General. This is admitted on all hands 
and in all respects to be an excellent appointment." 

The National Intelligencer of the eleventh of March gives 
a detailed account of the funeral services of Postmaster- 



8 

General Brown, which are represented to have taken place 
at the White House the day before, and from the account I 
make the following extract : 

"About 12 o'clock tlie President of the United States, ac- 
comi)anied by Secretaries Cass, Floyd, Tousey, Cobb, Black, 
and the new Postmaster-General, Holt, entered the room 
througli the rece[)tion parlors, and took their seats near the 
clergy. The Rev. Dr. Hall, of the G-Street Episcopal 
Church, and the Rev. I. G. Grauberry, the ofliciating clergy- 
men, then took their position at a small table in front of the 
coffin." 

It is evident, then, from contemporary and unquestionable 
testimony, that Postmaster-General Brown having died on 
the eighth of March, I was on the ninth nominated by the 
President to succeed him, and at once unanimously con- 
firmed ; that on the tenth I attended his funeral services 
with the other mend^ers of the Cabinet, and that, finally, as 
the record shows, on the fourteenth of March, with my com- 
mission in my hand, 1 went to the department, was quali- 
fied, and entered u})on my duties as Postmaster-General. 

What reception is due from the public to a man capable, 
in the interests of the foulest defamation, of thus mislead- 
ing them? I look in vain, for even the shred of a circum- 
stance that can hide the hideous nakedness of the falsifica- 
tion of history, which this simple narrative brings to light. 
The case, then, stands thus : It is proved that I was appointed 
onthe ninth of March, and that the Postmaster-General died 
only one day before (the eighth). Mr. Thompson says the 
Cabinet meeting in which Postmaster-General Brown's death 
being recognized, the question of his successor was considered , 
was held " several weeks " before my appointment, and .so 
necessarily, the same " several weeks,'' less a single day, before 
the Postmaster-General actually died ! Could anything be 
added to the completeness of this exposure ? * Should he, 

"Tbe iutense g'uiltiuess of this calumuy can be jueasurecl only by keeping con- 
stantly in mind that its utterance professes to be prompterl, not by opinion, nor 
yet by mfoiniMtion derived fi"om nt\wxti.h\\{ from li<irhi<i kcch a n<J' heard Ihe pre- 
tended /arts set forth, and from hueiii;/ ttilceii it Ictidimj port in t/trni. The slan- 
derer has thus closed up every loophole through wliich'he might otiicrwise have 
hoped to escape. 



9 

thus pressed to the wall, strive to escape by suggesting that 
he was mistaken as to the time of the Cabinet meeting, and 
that it must have taken place between the day of the death — 
the eighth — and that of the appointment— the ninth — the 
shallow subterfuge would be driven to commit hara-kiri^ in 
presence of the uin[ualitied decUiration that the " appoint 
ment hung tire for seventl weeks.'' 

Pardon me for again entreating that the rule of law 
quoted be still held in remembrance, since it will be helpful 
in estimating aright other statements yet to be examined. 

It was my fortune wliile Commissioner of Patents to render 
to President Buchanan certain services — not at all in the line 
of my official duty — which were important and relieved him 
of much personal labor, and for which I received his thanks. 
From the character of these services aud the close and cor- 
dial relations into which they brought us, he had the best 
opportunit} of judging for himself of my capabilities and 
of my fitness for official advancement. That he did so 
judge and make the appointment on that judgment, without 
a suggestion from Mr. Thompson or anybody else, I, from the 
promptitude of his action, have never doubted. The 
fact that the appointment was made and confirmed the day 
after the death of Postmaster-General Brown, would seem to 
indicate that there was little time or opportunity for inter- 
vention from within or without. 

On the resignation of Secretary Floyd the President ap- 
pointed me Secretary of War, and gave me constant proofs 
of his confidence and good will to the close of his adminis- 
tration, and while holding my hand, as I was taking my 
leave of him when he was quitting Washington, his last 
words were: "Holt, you have been true." These words 
were pronounced with an earnestness which left no question 
but that his heart was in them ; they were his judgment on 
my entire official record. 

I will not insult the public intelligence by noticing the 
driveling story about what Mr. Thompson thought, and 



10 

everybody knew, would be tbo fate of state bonds in the 
event of a war. 

The gravest of his accusations remains to be responded to. 
Speaking of me, he says : 

"'He it was wlio bribed witnesses to testify that [ was 
the instigator of the plot to assassinate Lincohi." 

" Have you any proof? '' asked the interviewer. 

" I have this," he said: "The fellow who testified, after- 
ward confessed that he had sworn to a lie,* and was put on 
trial for perjury. During this trial it was proven that large 
sums of mone}^ had been given the {)(?riurer by Holt, my 
enemy." 

I recognize in this the ressurrected cr^^ of a rebel pack that 
was at my heels seventeen years ago. Furiously and fast they 
pursued, but their cry proved harndess then, and it will prove 
harmless now. Of the very large number of witnesses who 
were examined on behalf of the government during the trial 
of the assassins of President Lincoln before a Military Com- 
mission dn this city, but two implicated Mr. Thompson in 
the general conspiracy alleged to have existed for the com- 
missiot) of the crime. These were Richard Montgomery and 
and a man calling himself Sandford Conover. The fii'St 
(Montgomery) was unknown to me, but, as appeared by his 
evidence, he had been previously in the government employ. 
The character of his testimony will be seen from the follow, 
ing extracts copied from the published record of the trial: 

"I visited Canada in the summer of 1864, and, excepting 
the time I have been going backward and forward, have re- 
mained there until about two weeks ago. [ knew George 
N. Sanders, Jacob Thompson, CleMient C. CMay, Prof. Hol- 

*N<)siulic(HilVssi(iii \va.sev<i-iii;i(UMii)rliiistliistfstiliiniiy iil'CoiKivt'r.thusrefPITOCl 
tb—l'eiiif; tliiit iiiviii l>.v liiiii Ixlorc tlio Militjry ('(iiiiiiiission -bciii controvci'tcd or 
attruiptiil to I'l' 1 (iiitn'>V( rtcd li.v niiy I'vidoiici' rbat lias roiiii' I o my not ice ; nor was 
its tnitlifuliicssal all calUil in .iiuMioti in his imoscciU ioir lor iicijiuy and t^iihonia- 
t.ifHi of ]tcriiiry--lli(sr otViMiscs lia\ iiiic Ixcn iDiiiiuitlfd Idiui iifirr llir triiil brlnrr. 
fhe Mi/iUu-i/ ('niiniiisxiiiii, (iiid in iiroirrdiiii/s Iniriii;/ iii> rchili'iii to if While, tlicro- 
I'orf, it is inii' ihal tliis niau " was put on liial for jxijiiry." it is o(iually trtu'tlial 
hr was not cliai -cd with ha\in^- coinniitted vcijiify wlicn tostilyini;' aiiainst Mr. 
Tlioiiipsoii JRfoic the Militar^- Coiimiissioii. Tlu' ( ;ovcruiutMit was in possession of 
no information tlien, nor hasit any now. on winch to base sucli a eliaise. 



11 

comb, Beverly Tucker, W. C. Cleary, and Harrington. I 
have frequently met these pei^sons since the summer of 18(34, 
at Niagara Falls, at Toronto, St. Catherine's, and at ATon- 
treal. Thompson passed by several othei- names, one of 
which was Carson. Clay passed by the name of Hope, also 
Tracy, and another was T, E. Lacy. 

"In a conversation Iliad with Jacob Thompson in the 
summer of 18(34, he said he had his friends (confederates) all 
over the northern states, who were ready and willing to go 
any length to serve the cause of the South ; and he added 
that he could at any time have the tyrant Lincoln, and any 
other of his advisers that he chose, put out of his way ; he 
would hav^e but to jioint out the man that he considered in 
his way, and his friends, as he termed them, would put him 
out of it, and not let him know anything about it if neces- 
sary ; and that they would not consider it a crime when 
done for the South. 

" Shortly after Mr. Thompson told me what he was able 
to do, I repeated the conversation to Mr. Clay, who said : 
' That is so ; we are all devoted to our cause, and ready to 
go any lengths — to do anything under the sun to serve our 
cause.' 

'' In January of this year I saw Jacob Thompson in Mon- 
treal several times. In one of these conversations he said a 
proposition had been made to him to rid the world of the 
tyrant Lincoln, Stanton, Grant, and others. The men who 
had made the proposition, he sa,id,,he knew were bold,' dar- 
ing men, and able to execute anything they would under- 
take, without regard to the cost. He said he was in favor 
OF THE PROPOSITION, but had determined to defer his answer 
until he had consulted with his government at Richmond, 
and he was then only waiting their approval. He added 
that he thought it would be a blessing to the people, both 
north and south, to have these men killed. * * * 

" I have been in Canada since the assassination. A few 
days after I met Beverly Tucker at Montreal. He said a 
great deal about the wrougs that the South had received at 
the hands of Mr. Lincoln, and that he deserved his death, 
and it was a pity he did not meet with it long ago. He said 
it was too bad that the boys had not been allowed to act 
when they wanted to. The 'boys' was an ex}>ression ap 
plied to the Confederate soldiers and others in their employ 
who engaged in raids, and who were employed to assassi- 
nate the President. 



12 

" I related a portion of the conversation I had had with Mr. 
Thompson to Mr. W. 0. Cleary, who is a sort of confidential 
secretary to Mr. Tljompson, and he tohl nie that Booth was 
one of the parties to whom Thompson had reference ; and he 
said in regard to the assassination, that it was too bad that 
the whole work had not been done ; by which I nnderstood 
him to mean that they intended to assassinate a greater num- 
ber than they succeeded in killing. Cleary remarked, when 
speaking of his regret that the wliole work had not been 
done, ' They had better look out ; we are not done yet.' 
And he added that they would never be conquered — ^would 
never give up. 

"Cleary said tiiat Booth had been there, visiting Thomp- 
son twice in the winter ; he thought the last time was in 
December. He had also been there in the summer. 

" Thompson told me that Cleary was posted upon all liis af- 
fairs, and that if I sought him (Thompson) at any time and he 
was away, I might state my business to Mr. Cleary and it 
would be all the same ; that I could have perfect confidence 
in him, and that he was a very cloae-moutlied man. * * 

" During my stay in Canada I was in the service of the 
United States government, seeking to acquire informa- 
tion in regard to the plans and purposes of the rebels who 
were assembled there. To do this most effectually I adopted 
the name of flames Thompson, ar.d, leading them to suppose 
this was my correct name, I adopted some other name at 
any hotel at which I might be stopping I was entrusted 
with dispatches from these confederates to take to Rich- 
mond. I carried some to Gordonville, with instructions to 
send them from there I received a reply to these dispatches, 
which I carried back to Canada, bringing them through 
Washington, and making them known to the United States 
government. I took no dispatches from the rebel govern- 
ment to their agents in Canada without first delivering them 
to the authorities in Washington. * * * 

" I frequently heard the subject of raids upon our frontier 
and the burning of cities spoken of by Thompson, Clay, 
Cleary, Tucker, and Sanders. Mr. Clement C. Clay was 
one of the prime movers in the matter before the raids 
were started. They received his direct indorsement. He 
represented himself to me as being a sort of representative 
of their war department at Richmond. The men I have 
reference to, more especially Mr, Clay and Mr. Thompson, 
represented that they were acting under the sanction of 



13 

their government, and as having full power to act with ref- 
erence to that : that lhey had full power to do anything that 
they deemed expedient and foi- the henelit of their cause. 

"I was in Canada when arrangements wei-e made to tire the 
city of New York. I left Canada to bring the news to 
Washington ten days before the attempt was made. It or- 
iginated in Canada, and had tlie full sanction of these men." 

If this evidence has ever been confuted, in whole or in part, 
it is unknown to me. This witness has never been tried for 
perjury or accused of that crime in any legal proceeding ; nor 
so for as I know or believe, lias his character for veracity 
been questioned in any judicial injury. He stood before the 
Militar}' Commission, and stands now unimpeaclied. 
The public has probably long since determined the weight 
to which his statements are entitled. It is surprising that 
in the zeal with which he has pursued and branded " the 
fellow " Conover " the perjurer," Mr. Thompson should have 
totally lost sight of Richard Montgomery, with whose tes- 
timony he must be familiar, since it was published so long- 
ago. 

The otlier witness (Conover), also a stranger to me, was 
brought to the notice of the government by a gentlemen of 
New York,who represented him as having been a foi-mer cor- 
respondent of the Tribune^ and as altogethr reliable. His evi- 
dence was more distinctly criminative of Mr. Thompson than 
that of Montgomery, but because of subsequent events, yet to 
be stated, I forbear to quote it. Now, both these witnesses 
were summoned, attended, and gave their testimony in the 
usual way, and received tlie compensation allowed by law 
for such services, and any averment or insinuation that they 
were bribed or received any money or other consideration 
from me or by my authority for the purpose of controlling 
or in any manner atfecting the testimony given by them is 
as utterly false as malignant. 

In July, after the trial, Conover addressed a written com- 
munication ro me from New York, ol which the following 
is the opening paragraph : 



14 

New York, July 36, 1865. 
Brig. Gen. Holt. — Dear Sir: Believing that lean procure 
witnesses and documentary evidence sufficient to convict 
Jeff. Davis and C. C. Cla}- of complicity in the assassination 
of the President, and that I can also find and secure John 
H. Surratt, I beg leave to tender the government, tli rough 
jou, my services for these purposes. 

It will not escape notice that no allusion is made to Mr. 
Thompson. He then proceeded to set out in detail what he 
thought could be proved by the witnesses he i)roposed to 
produce. On the Second of August following, another letter 
to the same effect, but more urgent, was received from him, 
and after a conference with the Secretary of War, with his 
full api)roval, the proposal was accepted, and Conover entered 
upon the fulfillment of his engagement. Some six or seven 
months were occupied in this, and after all the witnesses 
produced by him — none of whom were known to me — had 
been examined, and their depositions filed in tlie Bureau of 
Military Justice, Conover, under the supervision of the Sec- 
retary of War, was allowed a compensation, which, with 
what he had previously received, was deemed just, and no 
more, for his services — such sums as were required for the 
attendance of the witnesses themselves having been before 
paid out from time to time. C^onover himself gave no dejtosi- 
tion. In this there was no departure from the course habit- 
ually pursued by all the departments of the government. It 
was to this compensation that Mr. Thompson, with his cus- 
tomarj' looseness and recklessness of speech, alludes when he 
says that it was proven on Conover's " trial that large sums 
of money had been given the perjurer by Holt, my enemy," 
though no proof is offered to this effect ; nor have I ever 
heard before, nor have I now any reason to believe, that the 
matter was alluded to on that trial. But be this as it may, ,,* 
there could have been no truthful representation on^ubject (\'- ^ 
at all different from what I have made. 

At this time nothing had occurred to excite the sliglitest 
suspicion of Conover's integrity in all that he had done, or 



15 

in the credibility of his witnetsses. Some time afterward, 
two ot these witnesses, conscience stricken, came and con- 
fessed that they had sworn falsely, having been suborned to 
do so bj Conover. Inrestigation satisfied me that tbey 
w ere sincere in their avowals, and without delay appropriate 
action was taken. A prosecution was set on f«x>t agtiinst 
Conover, and he was convicted and sent to the penitentiary 
for perjury and subornation of perjury, and on the margin 
of all the repiorts made by me on the dejK)sitions of the wit- 
nesses he had produced, an indorsement was made stating 
that the depositions were withdrawn and had been discred- 
ited. What more could have been done '. The antidote was 
in this manner brought in direct contact with the poison, 
and so destroying it at once and for all time to come. For 
tuuately this most guilty deception was discovered so soon 
that neither the reputation nor the sensibilities of anybody 
had suffered by the temporary credit given to it. I had 
acted, in receiving and reporting ufon the dep>ositions of 
these witnesses, in a strictly judicial capacity, and was no 
more respionsilble for their perjury than is a judge for the jier- 
jury of a witness, committed in a trial before him. It is worth 
mentioning that, of all these p)erjured witnesses, but two 
spoke of Mr. Thompson in connection with the assassination 
plot, and they testified to nothing they knew, but to some 
thing they had heard. Xow, although even p>erjarers do 
not lie always and iu all things, yet it may be and is un 
hesitatingly conceded that it would be unsafe to credit as a 
basis of action Couover's testimony before the Military Com- 
mission, and this, not because of its improbability — for it 
was strongly corroborated by Montgomery, who is unim- 
peached — but because of the pei-sonal infamy in which he 
afterwards involved himself. Still, it remains for a thought- 
ful and discriminatiug p)ublic to determine how far the clear 
and incisive testimony of Richard Montgomery can be im- 
paired in its force by denunciations, however well deserved, 
of another witness with whom he had no connection what- 
ever. 



16 

It has not been my purpose in this paper to accuse Mr. 
Thompson, in regard to his conduct in Canada, preferring to 
leave this to the events of the past, under such interpretation 
as loyal and candid men may give them. My leading purpose 
has been to vindicate myself from a charge as wicked and un- 
provoked as ever fell from human lips. Some seventeen 
years ago, in an elaborate publication, I defended myself 
triumphantly from the rebel criminations of my official con- 
duct in connection with Conover and his witnesses, which 
were then beating as a storm upon me. These conflicts, 
with their issues, have passed into history, and Mr. Thomp. 
son greatly mistakes if he supposes the judgment of that 
history is to be reversed or modified by the invectives of to- 
day, however audacious and vindictive thc}^ may be. 

But it is proper that I should give the origin of the hatred 
which Mr. Thompson has so long borne me, and which has 
just found so unworth}- an expression. After it had l^een de- 
termined and announced m the Cabinet that Fort Sumter 
should be reenforced, it was arranged by Gen. Scott and my- 
self that this should be attempted by the Star of the West, 
which, with all the precautions i)ossible, was dispatched from 
N^ew York for this purpose. Mr. Thompson, being still a 
member of the Cabinet, with all the obligations of honor and 
of loyalty imposed by his position resting upon him, tele- 
graphed to Charleston that this vessel was coming and its 
object. In consequence, when it arrived at Charleston har- 
bor, the rel)el batteries opened on it, and it was driven hack. 
Up to this time our relations had been friendly — certainly 
so, on my part — but this act separated me from him at once 
and forever. Having resigned his seat in the Cabinet and 
returned to Mississippi, he addressed to the people of that 
State the following language : 

^''As I was icriting my resignation^ I sent a dispatch to 
Judge Longstreet that the Star of the West was coming 
with reenforcements. The troops were thus pnt on their ijiiard^ 
and when the Star of the West arrived she received a warm 
welcome from booming cannon^ and soon beat a retreat. I was 



17 

rejoiced that the vessel was not sunk, but I was the more 
rejoiced that the concealed tricky first conceived by Gen. 
Scott and adopted by Secretary Holt, but countermanded by 
the President when too late, proved a failure." 

" his was his exultant cry over a stab given to his country 
at the very moment he was enjoying its confidence, and was 
clothed with its honors. In his late " interview " he again 
frankly avows this criminal act, but thinks that he should 
be excused from blame because others had the same informa- 
tion, and might have communicated it to the enemy — but did 
not, doubtless from a sense of duty— a specimen of logic so 
unique as to be worth remembering. The terra " concealed 
trick '' imported and was intended to import all possible un- 
fairness and dishonor on the part of Gren. Scott and myself. 
Although that grand old soldier certainly needed no defense 
at my hands, yet it was due to the responsible action which 
we had jointly taken that it should be rescued from the ob_ 
loquy sought to be heaped upon it. To this end I addressed 
a letter to the editors of the Naitonal InteUigencer, which ap- 
peared in that journal on the fifth of March, 1861, setting 
forth the circumstances under which the Star of the West 
had been dispatched, and, in doing so, utterly demolished 
Mr. Thompson's calumnious accusation, and so placed his dis- 
loyal conduct in its true light before the country. This was 
the beginning of a relentless hostility on his part, which — 
judging from its present vigor — has been carefully nursed 
through the long years which have followed. Mr. Buch- 
anan, after reading this letter the morning it appeared 
said to me, " Your letter is severe, but just." This was the 
judgment of one who had complete personal knowledge of 
all the facts on which my defense and the arraignment of 
Mr. Thompson's action were based. Subsequently, I ad- 
dressed another letter as the former— and which was a re- 
joinder to Mr. Thompson's reply to my first — in which the 
position he occupied was characcerized in these words: 

" It remains, therefore, undenied and undeniable, as a part 
of the history of the times, that the late Secretary of the 



18 

Interior, while jet a member of the Cabinet, dispatched in- 
tellio;ence which reached, and must have been intended to 
reach, those in open arms aii^ainst the government of the 
United States, and that upon this information the Star of 
the West was fired upon and expelled from Charleston har- 
bor, thus defeating the expedition for the relief of Fort Sum- 
ter, and jeopardizing the lives of all engaged in it. It is 
further part of the record thus made by the Secretary him- 
self that in this result, secured by his own act, ' he re- 
joiced.' " 

These words were true then, and they are true now, and 
history will not fail to make a like record of Mr. Thomp- 
son in a book of remembrance which will not perish ; and 
to this will be surely ailded a branding condemnation, so 
long as the sentiment of loyalty to our country — which, 
next to the worship of the living God, is the noblest spring 
of human action — is respected among men. It gave me no 
pleasure to write these letters. On the contrary, it was 
painful to be obliged to speak in appropriate terms of an 
act of official treachery unparalleled in our history, and which 
I felt to be a humiliation for our country and times, and if 
these letters pierced the joints of Mr. Thompson's armor, as 
doubtless they did, he should remember always, amid the 
ranklings of his resentment, that they were but the rebound 
of a sliaft which had come from his own quiver. 

Mr. Thompson speaks bitterly of me as his " enemy," and 
possibly has been led to believe that I, in common with the 
loyal people of the North, have been led into unfriendliness 
toward him because of his distinguished military services 
during the Rebellion. This is a delusion on his part which 
I hasten to correct. The only history of those services 
which has reached the North is that given by General Grant 
in his testimony before the Military Commission which 
tried the assassins of the President. I copy it from the 
record of the trial as follows : 

"I met Jacob Thompson, formerly Secretary of the Interior 
under President Buchanan's administration, when the army 



19 

was lying opposite Vicksbnrg, at what is called Milliken's 
Bend and Young's Point. A little boat was discovered coming 
up near the opposite shore, apparently surreptitiously, and 
trying to avoid detection. A little tug was sent out from 
the navy to pick it up. When they got to it they found a 
little white flag sticking out of the stern of the row boat, 
and Jacob Thompson in it. They brought him to Admiral 
Porter's flugshi[i, and I was sent for to meet him. I do not re- 
collect the ostensible business he had. There seemed to be 
nothing at all important in the visit, but he pretended to be 
under a flag of truce, and he had, therefore, to be allowed to go 
back again. That was in January or February of, 63, and 
it was the first flag of truce we had through, lie professed 
to be in the Military service of the rebels, and said that he 
had been offered a commission — anything that he wanted; but 
knowing that he was not a military man, he preferred hav- 
ing something more like a civil appointment, and he had, 
therefore, taken the place of Inspector-General, with the 
rank of lieutenant colonel, in the rebel service.^')^ 

The heart of the country has been found large enough and 
magnanimous enough to forgive these services against its 
flag, but of course, they were too brilliant to be forgotten. 

I cannot close this communication without bearing em- / 
phatic testimony to the loyalty of President Buchanan 
throughout the troubled and trying scenes which marked 
the last months of his administration. With measureless 
responsibilities oppressing him; badgered by traitors and 
by the department of the government which owed him 
sympathy and a loyal support ; and, standing, as he did, on 
the brink of a great national calamity, the imminence of 
which was awing all hearts, he was often cast down, but 
never.uufaithful to his duties. Amid the blinding rancor of 
party strife he was constantly misunderstood and constantly 



-Should there be rtiscovered in this sketch an unusually laiRe measure of litUe-iiGs&, 
it must be ascribed to Gen'l Grant's scrupulous accuracy as a historian. But as 
the phrenziod and sanguinary heat of the Rebellion must, after the lapse of so many 
years, be cooled in Mr. Thompson's bosom, he should now congratulate himself on 
seeing his war record, passing tlius quietly down to posterity, in terms so simple and 
harmless, instead of being written in the birid light of the burning cities of the North 
whose destruction by the torch had— as Mdiitgoiaerj-sweaTS— his "full sanction "and 
the " full sanction " as well, of the otlicr rebel heroes named who were fighting 
our flag from the safe soil of Canada, instead of upon the perilous battlefields of the 
South. 



20 

misrepresented. He was not an aggressive man, nor at all given 
to violent forms of speech or of action. He shrunk from the 
contemplation of civil war and the bloodshed it would in- 
volve, and sought to postpone it to the last possible moment.* 
But in all this there was no taint of disloyalty. While, 
however, uniformly gentle and suave in his modes, he 
was not the less firm in view of the ends to be finally attained. 
And yet it was this very gentleness and suavity — the result, 
in part, perhaps, of his peculiar temperament, but yet more, 
it may be, of the training inseparable from his diplomatic 
career — which often misled men, who paused not to reflect 
that iron hands are sometimes found in silken gloves. 

J. HOLT. 



'Tliiit the lirst Kho( iu tbe Rebellion cauic troiu t iie cueiiiy, was due wholly to this 
policy of pi'ocrastiijjttion, then so seveily censured; aud yet it was this first shot, 
and tlie fart thai li was tired not from. Iiiit upon Foil Siiiiipter. and the tlagfioatiug 
over It. ttiar intlaiiu-d imd uiiit<'d the country, aud uavc lo I in- national patriotism 
a fervor aud ivsistlcss iiii)it'tuswhlcli carried our aruues aud pcoph' in triiinipli and 
glory tlirongli tin- war. Had that first shot come from tin- liatteries of -umpter, 
the iien e i)ai't.\' jiassions tlien raging would lia\'e lieeii swift to denounce tlie ad- 
miuisti'atiou as making war upon the Soutli, and fatal ilisseusious among ourselves 
might have ensued. Could, therefore, the short-sighted cari)ers of that <lay have 
beeu able to see the end from the begiuuing, the reproaches which they heaped on 
Pre.sideut Buchanan would have turned to blessings on thi-lr lips. 



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